


Ask Her Out, Ya Dingus!

by krzed



Series: DYBIM-Verse [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, Previous Chat Noir and Ladybug, Romance, Set in the mid 90s, failed flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-12-03 00:50:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11521068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krzed/pseuds/krzed
Summary: Coccinelle, the ladybug long before Marinette, is having trouble asking out the girl she likes.A pseudo-prequel to 'Do You Believe In Miracles?'





	Ask Her Out, Ya Dingus!

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Anthemyst](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anthemyst/gifts), [poppicock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/poppicock/gifts).



Coccinelle had faced many dangers since she received her Miraculous over a year ago. Bank robbers, terrorists, runaway buses. She could take a hit, take a bullet, and take down most grown men with a single punch. She had Alley Cat, an amazing and supportive partner. She had Paon, a caring (if not a little overbearing) mentor, and she had a kwami that gave her amazing life advice built up over millennia of experience. She was invincible.

So, why why _why why WHY COULDN'T SHE ASK OUT THE GIRL SHE LIKED?_

“You are seriously overthinking this, Buggy,” Alley Cat grumbled from her perch atop the skeletal steel structure that, according to the sign on the streets below, would eventually become a hotel. 'Le Grand Paris' the sign said.

Coccinelle sat on a steel girder, leaning back against another beam and gazing out at the skyline lit up in contract to the night sky, her arms crossed over he chest and her eyes focused on nothing. Her dark hair, streaked with red across her bangs, flowed in the gentle breeze.

She sighed and said, “You don't get it, Alley. I can't just ask her out. That would mean coming out of the closet, and I...I don't think I'm ready for that.”

Alley plopped down on the girder next to her partner and kicked her legs back and forth. “You came out to me, right?”

“That's different. You don't know who I am, and I can trust you.” She smiled and turned to her partner. “Besides, you essentially told me you were bi within five minutes of meeting me.”

Alley Cat ran her glowing blue eyes up and down her partner, a lecherous grin working its way onto her face as she fluffed her mane-like blonde hair. “Is it my fault your ass looks great in black and red?” Coccinelle laughed a little at that, but her eyes still turned back out to Paris, unfocused and wandering. “But in all seriousness, just talk to her. Worst case scenario she turns you down.”

“No, worst case scenario she posts my sexuality on the school bulletin board and every Catholic in the city starts throwing rocks at me.”

“Felice would never do that and you know it.”

“Yeah, but my brain is 'what-iffing' me to death and I almost can't take it anymore.”

Silence passed between them for a few minutes until Alley broke it.

“Wow, this is either your good luck or my bad.”

“Huh?” Coccinelle sat up. “What is?” Alley pointed to the streets below and Coccinelle followed the finger down.

Strolling down the sidewalk, intermittently illuminated by streetlamps, was a blonde woman with what Coccinelle knew were beautiful green eyes. A blue dress hugged her upper body and flared out just past her waist. She walked with intent, with purpose, something Coccinelle had always admired in her. And a trait she also found slightly intimidating.

She jumped to her feet and flashed her partner a panicked grin. “Wow, I think I hear police sirens on the _complete other side of the city!_ We should investigate!”

Alley pushed herself to her feet and sighed. “You know, it's too bad I'm the cat and you're not.”

Coccinelle's brow furrowed. “What...what do you mean by that?”

“You'd have a better chance at landing on your feet.”

“Wha? Landing...on my...”

How many lives was Alley Cat down to? Seven? Six maybe? Well, she was going to be down to one by the time this angry little ladybug was through with her. She began contemplating the multitude of ways one could skin a cat just after she felt a palm against her back shoving her off their roost atop the construction site. As she screamed on the way down, a pair of gorgeous green eyes turned upwards and tracked her body as she finally got her act together and twisted in such a way that she did, in fact, land on her feet.

Except now, she was standing in front of Felice Cassaille, one of Paris' biggest up-and-coming models and the most beautiful woman she had ever seen in her life.

“Oh, my,” Felice gasped. “You're...you're that ladybug vigilante!”

“Uh,”she stammered, her hand immediately rubbing against her opposite forearm. “Co-Co-Coccinelle. I, uh, call m-myself...Coccinelle.”

Felice looked her up and down, and only then did the heroine realize she was wearing a skintight suit that left little to the imagination. Coccinelle's face flared redder than her mask and she straightened her back. “You know, most newspapers say you're just an urban legend.”

“W-well,” Coccinelle stuttered trying to disguise her discomfort and failing, “I don't _feel_ like an urban legend.”

Felice hid a small giggle behind her hand and Coccinelle thought, _'Oh god her giggle is magic. She will be my undoing.'_

“Well, it was a pleasure to officially meet you, Mademoiselle Coccinelle, but I must be off.” She gave the heroine a small smile and turned to walk down the street.

Coccinelle stood, transfixed, and almost missed her yoyo chiming. She answered, but before she could get a word out, Alley Cat screamed through the tiny speaker, “Ask her out, ya dingus!”

“Alley, I am going to _murder you_!”

“Yeah, yeah, murder me _after_ you get the girl. Now go get her!”

The communicators clicked off and Coccinelle clenched her fist around the yoyo. As much as she hated to admit it, Alley Cat was right. She needed to be strong, to be brave. She was an invincible superhero.

“Um, Fe-Felice?” _Yeah, less stuttering next time, idiot._

The model spun on her heels and the way her dress swished about her shapely calves made the 'invincible superhero' melt in her suit. “You know my name?”

“W-well, um...” Coccinelle gestured above them to a billboard featuring Felice modeling a stunning blue lipstick. “Who in Paris _doesn't_ know your name?”

Felice smiled. “Fair. Did you need something?”

Red gloved fists clenched and a black boots ground into the sidewalk. Maybe now was a time to take a page from her partner's book: blurt it all out and face the consequences later. She squeezed her eyes shut and let every emotion in her heart pour out. “I like you!” Felice's brow raised in surprise. “Like, I really really like you and I'm too much of a chicken shit to do anything about it without this mask on and I'd like to go out with you sometime but I realize a model is _way_ out of my league but I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life and I think I'm in love with you and...” Her teeth clamped down on the inside of her lips preventing any more words from spilling out and she gently eased her eyes open.

Felice stood and stared for a few seconds, each passing by at an excruciatingly slow pace, every tick a chip at Coccinelle's sanity. Then she smiled and giggled again, making the heroine sway in her boots. “I don't think I've ever heard a confession quite so...sincere or...I suppose 'candid' would be the word?” She fidgeted with a strange pin on her dress, a pin that looked like a bird feather. “But I don't think it's wise for...someone in your profession to get mixed up with a civilian.”

“Oh, I, um...I'd take the mask off.” Coccinelle hunched her shoulders. “For our date?”

“Your identity needs to remain a secret, Coccinelle.”

Whatever anxiety Coccinelle felt in her heart left momentarily when Felice spoke with such swift and aggressive authority. Even her facial expression changed. Soft and caring one moment, sharp and focused the next. Why did that look in her eyes seem so familiar? Why did her words sound so familiar? Why did she sound just like...

“Besides,” Felice continued, her voicing having lost its previous edge, “as much as I'd like to get to know you better, I don't know how Paris would react to a model dating a vigilante.”

Coccinelle crashed back to Earth and shook her head. “Oh, um, yeah. You're...you're right. Sorry for bothering you.”

“No bother at all.” She turned to walk down the sidewalk and cast one last smile over her shoulder. “Goonight, Nelle.”

It would take Alley Cat dropping to her side a few seconds later to rouse her from her stupor. “Wow, tough luck, girlfriend.”

“I feel so stupid,” Coccinelle lamented, burying her face in her hands.

“You're not stupid! And it wasn't a total loss! She said she'd be interested in getting to know you better, and she even gave you a little pet name, _Nelle!_ ”

Coccinelle considered this for a moment, though her thoughts were interrupted by the sweeping headlights of an oncoming vehicle. The pair leapt off and decided to go their separate ways for the night, but all the way home, and even when she got home, Coccinelle couldn't help but admit Alley was right, and smile at the thought.

Nelle.


End file.
